898: Hot Take: You Don’t Need a Big Team, Fancy Setup, or the Next Big Platform

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2:10Not everything that's popular is effective and not everything effective is popular. This episode is for you if you're not afraid to raise eyebrows, do things your own way and be wildly successful because of it. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a$300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven-figure online business that feels even better than it looks all from my house in small town Minnesota with my family. Here, we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love.

2:53I've always loved turning big goals into reality, and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical, no-fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired, and empowered. This is the Gold Digger Podcast. If you've ever felt a little bit out of place in the business world because you don't want to do things the quote normal way, this episode is going to feel like a breath of fresh air.

3:36I am sharing six of my most unpopular opinions and unconventional business practices that have actually helped me build a super sustainable values-driven business from resisting the pressure to be on every single social media platform to choosing depth over constant creation to running a very lean but mighty team. These choices might go against the grain, but they've given me freedom, peace, and impact in ways that totally align with how I want to live my life and how I want to do my work. Whether you're new to the Gold Digger podcast, or you've been around for a while, I wanted to bring this one back because it still resonates so deeply with how I run my business today and exactly what I stand for.

4:18If you've been wondering whether you have to follow the crowd in order to succeed, this is the conversation that will give you full permission to carve your own path. Let's listen in. When I graduated high school, one of my all-time favorite teachers, Ms. Martha Vedder, who was my English teacher, gave me this little plaque and she had the most beautiful calligraphy writing. And she wrote that quote about marching to the beat of your own drum. It's always been something that I've done. It was something I was known for even back in high school of just kind of doing things in my own way and unapologetically.

4:55And it was crazy because when I was packing up our house to prepare for our move, I found that little plaque and it just made me smile of like, I've kind of always been someone who does things maybe a little bit differently or maybe a little non-traditionally. And that way of doing life has really helped me move through business in a way that might not be normal. So let's talk about some of these things that I do. Some of these unpopular opinions or business practices. So the first one is this, not trying to be on all of the platforms or jumping onto the next new thing. It's really funny because I've been around the internet world long enough to watch things like Vine and Clubhouse.

5:36And what was that one live... Oh, Periscope. That live video streaming platform, it came and it went. And a lot of times I resist. I don't even join those platforms. I don't jump on them. In fact, my book publisher is very annoyed that I'm not present on TikTok or that I'm not prioritizing YouTube. And it's really interesting to me because I love those apps. I think they're great. But I just know that it's not a place where I feel inspired to create. And if I'm not inspired to create in a certain space, it's not going to be work that I love. And it's also not going to be work that I'm consistent with.

6:11I genuinely want to be really good at a few things. And I personally know where I've built my loyal audiences. And I also am super conscious of what my bandwidth is. Just yesterday, I got a DM in my inbox and it was like some girl was like, hired this business coach and they're telling me I need to get on TikTok and I need to create YouTube shorts and all these things. But I thought you just said like, you just do like Instagram and Pinterest and your podcast really well. And that works for you. And that's how you grow your email list. And I was like, okay. And I just wanted to remind her, like you cannot be in all the places and do it well, unless you have a massive amount of support and a massive amount of content.

6:49You know, people often try to be in all the places, but they usually end up burning out or doing work that isn't actually tied to a direct result. If you think about it, and you think about the fact that every single platform that you're on that you do not own, so it could be Instagram or Pinterest or TikTok or even a podcast, they all have these different algorithms. And if you want to become really masterful, you have to understand what it takes to create and get your work seen and noticed. And as a reminder, we're not in control of those algorithms or those platforms, which is why it is so important that in the process of creating, you're thinking about how you're leveraging these different platforms to get people to a place where you do own and control, which could be a blog or a website or an email list.

7:38And so it's interesting and it might be unpopular, but I am just not someone that is going to jump to every single platform and try to master them all. I know that's not going to work for me. And I know that's not where I shine best. And so instead, I've always done things in a way of I want to get really masterful. I want to be super intentional. I want to be inspired. I want to have a strategy beyond just beating the algorithm. And that's how I want to show up. And so while yes, I know that maybe I could have success on TikTok, or maybe I know that I could get subscribers on YouTube right now, I'm not called to create in those places.

8:19And I'm not going to jump ship on what has been working and what continues to work for me. And so maybe this is just your reminder of like, you do not have to show up in all the places. I would way rather have you show up in one or two places with intentionality, with creativity, and with a strategy that guides actual results beyond things like likes and followers. And so that's unpopular opinion number one. Unpopular belief or business practice number two is that I don't create a million new products every year. You know, it's really interesting. I was at a recent mastermind with my peers and I stood up in the room with all these brilliant people.

8:59And one of the things that I shared is that I want to go deep. I don't want to go wide in friendships, in relationships, and also in business. In fact, I am kind of on this mission right now of like, I want to simplify even more, which is saying a lot because I'm narrowing my offers even more. I'm getting crystal clear on what it is that I want to be known for, how I want to make an impact. Like I have not created a new course in three years because I want to focus on keeping my current courses up to date and fresh and transformative. I do not want to always be on the hamster wheel of making more.

9:37I want to make less, but with more intent, more strategy, more optimization, more personalization. Entrepreneurs often can create and launch, and then they just start creating the next thing instead of looking for opportunities to optimize and to impact. I see it all the time too, where people, they get so obsessed with the actual creation that they don't actually take a minute to say, okay, what worked here? What didn't work? How could I make this better? How could I do this differently next time? And maybe their launch didn't go the way they thought it would. And instead of actually inspecting the launch, they just scrap the product and move on to the next product.

10:17When a lot of times people don't even get to experience how incredible your product or your service or your offer is because of the marketing behind it. And so I was asking my team, I was like, what are the things that we do that might be different than other businesses? And one of the first things they said was, we're not constantly creating new products. In fact, we rarely create something new. We are constantly looking at how we can create a better flow an invitation to get people to enjoy the actual products. A lot of times the problem is not with the product. It's with the process around that product.

10:50And as entrepreneurs and multi-passionate people and creative people, we often forget that we can look at that process and not scrap the product. And so for me this year and for the years past, I am not on a mission to create a bunch of new things. In fact, I will create very few new things, if any. I just want to keep making what I've already got even more epic and awesome and impactful. And so I hope that encourages you. Go deep. Don't go wide. Another thing that often surprises people, and it's actually quite hilarious when I share about it is I have very limited production value in my business.

11:31Very limited. For a reference point, I started my business about 12 years ago. And I've never really had a dedicated office space. I've never had a studio for my podcast. The other day, I was recording a podcast with a guest. And in the email we send out, we tell them, Hey, it's audio only for the podcast, but they missed that part. So we log on in and get ready to record it. And they were shocked. They were shocked that I don't do video. They're like, I've never done it this way before. And let me say it here first. I really actually want to start doing things like video. It is something that I would love to do now that I have a quiet office space.

12:11But in the 6 years since I started my podcast, I've never done video interviews. My show has been recorded in closets and cars. I don't want to be on video sitting in the front seat of my car. I don't want to be on video sitting in a closet with boxes that are titled random crap that I never unpacked from 4 years ago. And so my show has always just been an audio first show. And I actually just love the simplicity around it. I'm not worried about what I'm wearing. I'm not having to get all dolled up. I'm not worried about what I look like. I have realized for me, it is not about the method. It is about the message.

12:46And if I get caught up in the method and the production value, I will never create anything because it's never going to look good enough. And it's interesting because I think that when I share about this, I have such conviction in it because I know that I can easily get caught up in the perfection of something to the point where that desire for perfection caused me to procrastinate. And that procrastination just means I'm never going to put anything out there. And so what I love about my podcast and the success that it's seen is that it has come with a very low production value. I do not have a producer sitting on my interviews with me.

13:23I have a very minimal podcast set up right now. Now I literally have a microphone and a phone box that I bought on Amazon. And it has never been about having this perfect production value. I was talking to a friend who for literal years, she has told me that she wants to have a podcast. However, she wants it to be like a talk show. She wants to have the perfect set. She wants to have camera guys there. She wants to have an audio engineer, all these things. And guess what? She's never once recorded a single episode because of the production value. And so I want to encourage you, if you are someone right now who wants to put things out there, but the production value of it causes you to just not even create, dial it back, go to the absolute basics and remind yourself that it's not about the method.

14:11It's about the message. In fact, something that's interesting is I've had courses that have sold. I've sold thousands of them. I've taught thousands of students online and never once in my course, you actually see my face. It's not about me. No one needs to watch me sitting in a chair talking. I want to deliver the content. My courses are fluff free through and through. And when I tell people that, they're like, wait, what? Like you don't get like a whole team to come into your house. Like you don't have a whole set. You don't have a script. You don't have a teleprompter. No, I don't do any of that.

14:43Because if I would have done that, I would have never created the course. And it's not about any of that. It's really not. It's about getting people the systems and the content that they need to get the end result. it also has given me this freedom to constantly be updating my courses without requiring an entire team of people to have to come in order to update it. So it's kept everything super simple and streamlined for me, which is something I love about how I create. I've always been this way. And so I have very limited production value through and through. If you want to learn how to do things simply, learn from me.

15:19Because I am the person that is like, keep it simple, stupid. That is how I have created over the last decade and how I continue to create. And while I am excited to maybe explore different opportunities now that I'm actually going to have a quiet office that I can access any time of day, there's a part of me that's like, Hey, why change? It's worked this far. And it has kept you in your lane of really focusing on the message and not the method. And so I just want to encourage you there. It's not about the production value, baby. Get your content out there and change the world with it as simply as you possibly can.

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17:49And give them the best shot at success with Shopify. Sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash gold digger. Go to shopify.com slash gold digger. Shopify.com slash gold digger. another unpopular opinion belief business practice is that i am not someone who is always striving for more in fact i am like on a year of less and i have been for the last few years last year it was interesting i did not set these massive targets for myself or for my business to hit one of my best friends in business you might know who i'm referring to We talk daily and we always giggle because she could tell me down to the last sale where she's at in terms of their goals, their projections, their profits.

18:40I could not tell you a damn thing about that. I love it because we balance each other so well. And oftentimes, I'll just giggle because I'm like, I am not someone who sets these really rigid goals. It just doesn't inspire me. But it works for her. And I love that for her. You know last year when I kicked off the year I was on maternity leave So I kind of missed that whole like annual planning energy And what was really interesting is that we kind of moved through the year in a peaceful way in a way that felt good I didn't enter the year saying like q1 is this q2 is this q3 is this q4 is this It was a very like organic approach to the year and it was exactly what I needed as a mom of two I didn't know what being a mom of two would be like, right?

19:25And so I had given myself this year of less and this year of yes, as in what is my best yes? And how do I want to move through that? And that might be some of the worst advice I could give some of you out there. Maybe you need that structure. But for me, it was beautiful. And what happened is at the end of the year, I was actually blown away to see what we had accomplished, especially because I had moved through the year in this pretty part-time way. I had a three-month maternity leave. I took a month off after my book came out. And I took December off in terms of packing for our house. And we did a little family trip before the big move.

20:07And so when I looked at it, I was like, holy cow, I had over a third of the year off. And yet we accomplished so much. But I was even more proud that last year was this peaceful pace. It was this very organic unfolding. And when I asked my team again, like chime in, like, what are some things that we do that's different? Like, I am not someone who is never satisfied. I am not always on this journey of more. I am not constantly competing with myself or others. Like I am good and it feels so good. And sometimes I question like, is my ambition broken? Like, did the achiever in me die at some point?

20:54But I have learned to love this feeling of enoughness and peace. And I think that what often accompanies that is this ability to be present for my life, to be awake to my life that is unfolding. And it's just different. And I used to always be someone who wanted more and more and more. And when I look at what that historically brought me, it was burnout. And I just am in a place in my life where I don't do burnout anymore. I can't afford to do burnout. I can't be burnt out for you, for my business, for my family. So like, I just don't do that anymore. And if we talk about that rat race for more, like what I want more of is peace and ease and presence.

21:36That's what I'm after. It's not more things or more money. And so what's really interesting is from a business standpoint, I've intentionally built my life and my business in a way that allows me to not always have to be chasing. And it's just brought this level of abundance in a way that maybe isn't as impressive in terms of spreadsheets or numbers in a bank account. But it is this feeling that is so invaluable that I wish I could bottle up and give to everyone out there. And so my unpopular belief that I hold is that it's not always about more, that less has unlocked a different sort of life for me, and that I'm not out there competing with anyone or myself and who I was.

22:23I am out there just in pursuit of a life that feels good. And so my business these last few years, specifically, especially as a mom of young kids, is just like this more organic unfolding because I want my business in the way that I approach it to feel good and not just look good or not just produce well. The fourth unpopular opinion, Ms. Barbara Walters, is that I do not and have zero desire to have an enormous team. I do not have an enormous team of full-time employees. I will never forget this moment. It was a couple years ago. I was in this really unique place. I was achieving this different level of success.

23:05And I was sitting with my friend, Russell Brunson, who I adore. He is like my marketing brother. We have this really cool relationship. I remember we're sitting at one of my favorite restaurants in my favorite hotel and I was eating my favorite pancakes. And him and I were talking. He's like, tell me about your team. And I was like, Oh, you'd never believe this. But we have like 4 employees, is maybe like 10 people total when I look at contractors. And he's like, what? And he was telling me about how he had this... He had this whole call center at one point. He had hundreds of employees. He was like, man, I miss those days.

23:41I would give anything to go back to the simplicity of that. I love that. He's like, there's so much pressure of knowing that you have to pay... You are responsible for feeding these people and their families. And man, there's so much beauty in the simplicity of how you're doing business. And I will never forget that because it often reminded me of like how the grass is always greener, right? And it's funny because I have a lot of peers in my industry and they'll tout that they're leading teams of like 60 or 200 employees and they're proud of that. And I love that for them. But it is not for me.

24:17So my team currently is super small but mighty. We have 4 employees on payroll, like on salary. and we have about 5 to 6 contractors that work on or in the business on a weekly or monthly basis. I honestly do not have any desire within me to create this massive team. In fact, it's like, we're looking at some new hires that we're going to be doing because we're shifting some positions around on my team. And there's a part of me that's like, I don't want more people. I don't want more people, but I know it's the next right thing. But what is crazy about my small team is that everyone has been with me for years.

24:55For years. So I have people that have been on my team, I think for like 7 or 8 years. And then my most recent hire was like 3 years ago. And so it's crazy because we have built this family unit. And being this small and mighty force, it is wild because people are just blown away. We are incredible executors. Our implementation skills are bar none. But the other crazy thing about this is I have literally not gotten to be with my team in person since 2020. When I look at it, there has always been, obviously the pandemic, then I had a baby, then life was busy, then we're moving, then there's all these things.

25:39So it has been forever since we have actually been in a space together. And in the whole history of my team, we have only been in person twice in the whole history of my entire team. So in a decade. Now, do I want to change that? Absolutely. But I want to give you some confidence that you do not have to have this massive team to run a very successful company. And you also don't have to be in the flesh to do big things. It's so wild because we all work remote. We're spread out all over the country. And the fact that we are able to get so much done while also having so much peace and flexibility in our lives, it astonishes me.